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What we learned from the "Commander-in-Chief" exercise the other night is: (a) neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is fastidious about facts, (b) Matt Lauer is a nice guy but not up to presidential politics, and (c) voters expecting better in the "real" debate Sept. 26, should not hold their breaths.

How refreshing it is, after weeks and months of faux Clinton Foundation "scandals," after all the fatuous media talk about "optics" and "perceptions," to finally have a real Foundation scandal to chew on. An actual example of pay-to-play, of money given and a favor granted. And it comes to us courtesy of Donald Trump.

"Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials' correspondence be retained as part of the agency's record," Michael S. Schmidt wrote in his now-famous March 2, 2015, New York Times article.

"Glory days, well, they'll pass you by/Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye/But fork over $125 and sign this waiver/and, my friend, you're still The Guy." (With apologies to Bruce Springsteen.)

Back in early May, I predicted that the mainstream media's "objectivity" rituals would kick in as autumn neared, "balancing" the two major candidates according to the timeworn rules of "on of the one hand, on the other hand," thus leaving the impression that Hillary Clinton (seasoned and experienced, whatever her flaws) and Donald Trump (manifestly unfit, by dint of his temperament and ignorance) can somehow be equated.

These days it seems the only friends you have are the ones you meet through your kids. Adults connect with your kid's teams, your kid's schools. It didn't used to be that way. A long time ago the circle of friends for adults had zero to do with their children. There were no such things as helicopter parents, for instance. Sports and practices were a footnote to life.

A local man, Buster Butts, is one of the hardest workers I know. He works at a computer most of the day which demands heavy use of his eyes. Until just lately, I considered Buster to be almost blind. In fact, the cataracts on his eyes were so bad, that Buster had to lean over and almost place his nose on the computer screen to see what he was doing.